Keeper
by Cyberchao X
Summary: The concept of love as it occurs between two humans is so foreign to Ash that he doesn't even realize that that's what he feels for Serena. He just knows that he doesn't want his journey with her to end once he's finished challenging the Kalos League. Amourshipping.
1. Prologue

Keeper  
by Cyberchao X

A/N: Naming this fic was probably the hardest part…well, actually, there could be a number of hard parts in keeping up momentum given that this is a major violation of my rules about not working on fanfics at odd hours of the morning.

Prologue—Master Class Tournament

"Serena? Can we come in?" Ash asked, Clemont and Bonnie at his side.

"Go away!"

"Serena, I know exactly how you feel. Losing at the highest level, when you're so close to your goal, it's awful. I've been knocked out just three wins away from a championship three times, and once I even got to the semifinals, back in the Lily of the Valley Conference. Please…let me in." Serena didn't respond.

"Will you at least let me in?" Bonnie asked, and Serena consented to open the door. "There you go. She's all yours, Ash."

"Bonnie!" Clemont scolded, and Serena turned red.

"Bonnie, that wasn't very nice, trying to trick Serena. She let _you_ come see her, so go see her; talk to her," Ash said. Bonnie reluctantly did so.

"…Afraid to let Ash see you cry?" Bonnie asked.

"Not afraid. Just…I'm a mess right now."

"Ash is really worried that you're taking this loss hard. He doesn't like seeing you sad."

"Really?" Serena blushed again.

Bonnie nodded. "As dense as the boys are, Ash might not even know it, but I think deep down he might like you too."

"B-Bonnie…!"

"What? It's obvious how you feel about him. And I think with enough time, you two could be really happy together."

"…You really think so?"

"Yeah!" Bonnie said, and Dedenne voiced what seemed to be agreement. "So why don't you stop moping and let Ash see you!"

"…Okay."

A couple minutes later, Bonnie exited. "Okay, your turn for real now," she said.

* * *

An uncomfortable silence pervaded the room.

"…Well?" Serena asked.

"There's not really much I can say here. Losing is the pits, and nothing I say will change that. And I've had some painful losses. There was my first league challenge, back home in Kanto, when Charizard was still disobeying me frequently and ended up refusing to battle, costing me the match. In Sinnoh, there was this guy steamrolling the tournament with legendaries—even though I lost in the semifinals, most people consider me to have been the #2 finisher in that one because I was the only one who even managed to make Tobias send out a second Pokémon. That was rough. And in Unova, I was up against this total space case, didn't even realize that it was supposed to be a 6-on-6 battle and only brought 5 Pokémon, and I still lost. So trust me…I know all about losing."

"Ash…"

And then, much to her surprise, Ash had his arms around her. "You didn't want me to see you cry, did you? Well, it's fine. Let it all out."

"Um, Ash, I…"

"…Look on the bright side. If you were Kalos Queen, we'd have to go our separate ways when I go home to Kanto. You'd have your duties to worry about, after all, and you'd have to stay in Kalos. But since you're just another trainer on a journey, there's no reason you have to stay in your original home region, right?"

"Well, no…" She turned red, and in clear view of Ash. "Are you…inviting me to join you on your next trip?"

"If it gets that far, yeah. But before I go off to a new region, I've got lots of old friends to visit back in Kanto. And probably a few in the other regions, too…Unova's a bit out of the way, but I've got some friends in Sinnoh…and Hoenn! Heh, I bet by the time I get back, Max will be starting out on his Pokémon journey. He'd be about the right age now." Serena looked at him quizzically. "You know, Pokémon Showcases are a lot like the Pokémon Contests that they run back in Kanto and Johto and Hoenn and Sinnoh. You could probably become a Pokémon Coordinator." _"And traveling with a coordinator is probably the easiest way to track down May, and possibly Dawn as well,"_ he thought.

"Pokémon…Coordinator?"

"Perhaps we should stop off in Hoenn first. I wanted to head straight home to Pallet Town and probably then visit Pewter and Cerulean Cities, but I think that if I'm bringing you to the Grand Archipelago it might be best to head to Petalburg first.

* * *

A/N: That's the thing about fanfictions…you never know which way they're going to go. This chapter was mostly to set things up while they're still in Kalos—presumably, if it follows the example set by Hoenn and Sinnoh, Ash hasn't even challenged the Kalos League at this time, but we're going to skip right on ahead to Poképan after this. And yeah, it was tough to come up with a name for the collective of the four regions set in Japan analogues other than "Poképan", but I figured since the real Japan is an archipelago as well, "Grand Archipelago" is as good a name as any for the aggregation of the Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, and Sinnoh regions. And as alluded to here, it was originally just going to head to Kanto, but as much as this may be an Amourshipping fic, it's also a way of showing the slow passing of time. I mean, it's obvious that the series doesn't have negative continuity, so Ash must be aging slowly. Well, until next time, this is Cyberchao X, signing off.


	2. Chapter 1

Keeper  
by Cyberchao X

Chapter 1—Petalburg City

"Ash! What a pleasant surprise. Your timing is impeccable—Max just headed off to New Bark Town yesterday to get his starter; he should be back soon," the Petalburg Gym Leader, Norman, said. "Though I doubt you'd be interested in journeying through a region you've already conquered, so it's not like you could watch over him on his journey."

"Well, I've got a bit of a lull, so…we'll see."

"Ash?"

"Yeah, Serena?"

"That seems…unlike you. Usually you're running off to the next challenge."

"Like I said, we'll see. You're the one with the Contest journey, after all."

"Oh, an aspiring Coordinator!" Caroline said. "Maybe you'll run into my daughter, May. She and Ash traveled around Hoenn a few years ago."

"Oh? Ash, you didn't mention this," Serena said.

"I didn't? I thought I mentioned that I've pretty much always had at least two companions on each of my journeys. Usually just the two, although Hoenn was the first time I had a third—Kalos being the second."

"Funny, it never came up. You mentioned your friend Brock, but that was about it."

"Yeah, Brock stuck around the longest. I traveled through four regions with him, and no more than two with anyone else—well, three if you count the Orange Islands." A pause. "Sorry. I guess I wasn't thinking."

"Something you've always been quite good at," came a voice behind them.

"You don't even know the context!" Ash replied.

"Don't have to. What are you doing here?" Max asked.

"Just thought I'd stop by and visit. I thought Serena—oh, right, Max, this is Serena. Serena, Max. He and his older sister May joined Brock and me for our trip through Hoenn. So I thought Serena would enjoy Pokémon Contests, since they're so much like the Pokémon Showcases in Kalos, and of course this was where I first learned about Contests so I thought we'd go here…"

Max stood there for a moment, processing what Ash was saying. Was Ash Ketchum really actually putting aside his constant desire to take on new leagues in order to follow someone else's journey? "…Way to go, Ash. And here I thought the only thing you cared about was Pokémon."

Serena turned red. "What are you talking about?" Ash asked.

"Oh, nothing," Max smirked. "May would never believe it if I told her. But who knows, maybe she'll see it firsthand. You'll probably cross paths with her."

"That's kind of what I was hoping for. It's been so long since I've seen all my old friends, and I wanted to catch up. So, I hear you got your first Pokémon from Professor Birch," Ash changed the subject.

"Oh, yeah! …I don't suppose you have any Pokémon that are newly captured enough that they wouldn't totally destroy a new trainer like me."

"Nope," Ash replied, remembering what happened with Casey. "Sorry. But I'm curious, which one did you pick? Torchic, like your sister?"

"No way! Actually, that was kind of the problem…between you, May, and Brock, you guys had all three Hoenn starters. I felt weird picking one of them; I feel like I'd associate it too much with the Pokémon I already knew. You had the Kanto and Johto ones, too…"

"Well, May had two out of the three Kanto starters by the time we parted ways, too."

"Yeah. But Professor Birch's laboratory has actually been doing an exchange program with other regions, so I got a starter from another region. I followed some of your tournament results, so I managed to avoid taking one that you already had even though I'd never actually met yours."

"Really? Because between me and my companions, we usually had every starter covered…did you get a Kalos starter?"

"Nope. Come on out!"

Max called out his Pokémon—a little blue penguin. "Piplup!" it cried.

"Oh, a Piplup! That's right; Torterra and Infernape were both mine, but Piplup was Dawn's." Meanwhile, Serena consulted her Pokédex. _"Piplup. The Penguin Pokémon. Because it is very proud, it hates accepting food from people. Its thick down guards it from cold."_

"Dawn…" Max turned to Piplup. "Maybe we'd best work on evolving you quickly. Based on what Ash just said, I'm guessing that she never evolved hers."

"Something wrong, Max?"

"I forgot. May said she'd run into you and Brock when she went to the Wallace Cup, and that you were friends with the coordinator who ended up beating her. And yeah, she became friends with her, too, but… deep down she wishes she could beat Dawn just _once_."

"…Really? May's never gotten the better of Dawn in a contest?"

Max shook his head. "Never. Of course, Dawn's one of the top coordinators in the greater region, but then again so is May."

"Wow…Even having seen Dawn win at the Wallace Cup, I'd never have guessed."

"Oh? Now this sounds like an interesting story," Serena said.

"There isn't really 'a' story," Ash said. "Just a general feeling. Dawn and May were both newcomers to the world of Pokémon when I met them, but May seemed…better, I guess. She adapted better. By the time I saw her again at the Wallace Cup, she'd evolved most of her Pokémon. Glaceon, Wartortle, Venusaur, and of course Blaziken; Blaziken fully evolved shortly before we parted ways."

"Don't forget Beautifly," Max said.

"Right. Well, Beautifly reach their final evolutions so quickly that evolving one isn't necessarily the sign of an experienced trainer. Like Vivillon," he said to Serena.

"Also Dustox, Beedrill, and Butterfree," Max added.

"I had a Butterfree when I first started out. I hope he did okay. He left to start a family," Ash said.

"But as far as I can remember, Dawn only evolved a Pokémon three times, and one of those was originally _my_ capture. You remember Aipom, right, Max?"

"A little. You caught her near the end of our time together."

"Yeah. Although…Piplup _chose_ not to evolve, Pachirisu doesn't have an evolution, and Togekiss was already fully evolved when she got it. So I guess she didn't have that many opportunities."

" _Togekiss?!_ "

"It was a gift. …And yeah, Mamoswine was disobedient when it first evolved, but I had the same problem with Charizard, and it took me much longer to gain its trust. Maybe I'm being too critical of Dawn."

"For what it's worth, I've seen a few of May's contests against Dawn, and while I never saw her use a Togekiss, I've seen other evolved Pokémon besides a Mamoswine and an Ambipom. …Actually I don't think I've ever seen her use an Ambipom, either."

"Seems she's like me in more ways than one," Ash mused. "I never went back for Primeape or Pidgeot, either. What Pokémon?"

"Well, now that Mega Evolution is becoming more widespread, the biggest tournaments have actually been giving away Key Stones as championship prizes. May hasn't been able to get one yet, but Dawn won one and she managed to find a Lopunnite to go with it. And she's also got a Typhlosion."

"Typhlosion…I remember her hatching a Cyndaquil, but it hadn't even become a Quilava when I parted ways. Lopunnite?"

Max nodded. "Lopunny's Mega Stone."

"Lopunny… Um, hey, Pikachu, what's the matter?"

"Pika pika…" Ash recognized Pikachu's expression as one of terror, but couldn't comprehend why.

Serena browsed the Pokédex for a reference. _"Lopunny. The Rabbit Pokémon, and the evolved form of Buneary. The ears appear to be delicate. If they are touched roughly, it kicks with its graceful legs."_

"Oh, right, Buneary! I remember now."

"It looks like Pikachu's memories aren't nearly so fond," Max observed.

"Really? I thought you were good friends with Buneary! She seemed to like you a lot," Ash said.

" _She?_ Hmm…I think I know what the problem was," Serena said. "You didn't feel the same way, but you didn't have the heart to tell her, am I right?"

"Pi ka."

"I'm confused," Ash said.

"Of course you are," Serena replied.

"Yeah, I can see why finding out that that Buneary is now a Lopunny—and one that can Mega Evolve at that—might worry you," Max said.

"Maybe if you're lucky, she'll have lost interest now that you're no longer around the same size," Serena suggested.

Ash still didn't get it. Serena was all ready to explicitly explain it to him, but stopped. _"When it gets right down to it…that's a lot like Ash and me, isn't it? Or, maybe not…he_ did _ask me to come with him, after all."_ Something else gnawed at her. _"He said his Butterfree left to 'start a family'. So it's not like he's completely foreign to the idea of love. But I can't exactly broach the subject, can I?"_

* * *

CCX: Well, eventually _someone's_ going to.

This is actually really hard. I'm trying to maintain a balance here, because I don't want to just completely rewrite Ash's personality. It's hard to figure out how to manage the Ping-Pong Naïveté—Ash clearly _does_ like Serena, but at the same time, he's _Ash_ —completely ignorant when it comes to girls having crushes on him. He obviously can't be completely foreign to the concept—he traveled with Brock for all those years, not to mention the various times that one of his Pokémon had a romantic issue. (I'm just going to dismiss the Giselle thing as early-series weirdness. That was, what, episode 9? Ash's character hadn't been finalized yet.)

I'm really happy with how this is turning out so far. For one thing, I've gone through a bit of a lull where I didn't really have any projects in-progress, at least none that seemed to have much chance of being returned to. For another, the truest sign to me that a fic is really _going_ somewhere is when it takes _me_ somewhere unexpected—it's why fics that I plan out in advance so rarely ever even get off the ground, and why I've never even bothered _trying_ to rewrite the lost chapters of _Dream_. _Crewman Horndog screws his way through the Schwarzwelt_ surprised me in a way I didn't think possible; I'm not even going to talk about it here because, well, spoilers. _Lonely No More_ , I guess it surprised me when I became so attached to the side plots that I extended it to nearly twice its original length after declaring it "complete" at one point, and even then it felt unfinished because the "main" plot finished with so many of the side plots still hanging. I was still introducing new characters in the final chapter, for crying out loud! And of course, the most pleasant surprise I've had was Kuroi. When I first started making Touhou fanfics, I vowed to only make "NPC-level" OCs, and then Kuroi showed up and pretty much hijacked everything, to the point that I briefly toyed with making a fic that would _seriously_ challenge the limits of what could be considered a fanfiction. The bit in _Scarlet Devil 2_ where it was revealed that the Yagami sisters' mother had some past with Yasora…that seemed like something to expand upon, but not only would it have contained no canon characters, it wouldn't have even been set in Gensokyo. Really, the only thing making it a "fanfiction" at all was the fact that _I_ didn't create Yasora; she came from an existing fanwork. Thus, it could be considered a fanfiction _of that fanwork_ but not, technically speaking, of the original canon. Anyway, this seems to be a tangent but really it isn't—this is following where the prologue suggested it would go, yes, but even that was not the original plan. You saw it, right? Ash said he originally wanted to head straight home and then to Pewter _and Cerulean_ Cities. …Yeah. Of course, this fic might be a lot shorter if that was what happened, so I guess it's all good.

So now I'm left with a dilemma: how to plausibly avoid having anyone directly ask Ash about his feelings for Serena for however long the Hoenn saga might go—because I suspect that if anyone ever actually confronted him and forced him to _really_ think about it, he'd come to his epiphany and we'd be left with no real driving conflict. Also, I'm not really sure how I'd write Ash if he didn't have that mental block about his _own_ relationships.

* * *

"So other than apparently being unable to beat Dawn, how has May been doing?" Ash asked Max.

"She's been winning her fair share of contests. Wartortle evolved to Blastoise, and, um…well, that makes Skitty the only Pokémon in her rotation from her time with you that's not fully evolved. By choice, of course; she got a Moon Stone but Skitty wanted to part of it."

"So she got some new ones? …wait, so then Munchlax…?"

"Evolved, yes, but that spelled the end of his Contest career. If you want to see how he's doing…I'm sure my dad would be happy to battle you again."

"Your—oh, of course. Norman's gym uses Normal-types, so a Snorlax would fit right in. And the new Pokémon?"

"…Just a Roselia which she raised from a Budew egg." Max looked evasive.

"…Wait, something sounds off about that."

"Huh?"

"I'm no expert on where Pokémon eggs come from, but…shouldn't the egg have hatched into something else? Like, I don't know, another Skitty or Bulbasaur?"

"…I really didn't expect you to jump to that conclusion. Though you're not wrong about the gender of the particular Roserade you're thinking of."

"But I was wrong about the source of May's Budew egg?"

"…Not entirely. You picked up on that?"

"The sparks between them? Yeah, of course. May finally admitted her feelings for Drew?"

"…I don't understand you, Ash Ketchum," Max said, and left for his bedroom, leaving Ash bewildered.

* * *

CCX: Like I said, mental block. It's actually quite common to be able to perceive romantic sparks between other people but be completely oblivious to it where it concerns yourself. As for why Ash missed the Buneary/Pikachu thing…well, really it's the same thing. The bond between Ash and Pikachu is so strong that it's almost like Pikachu _is_ an extension of Ash, at least from Ash's point of view. Though Pikachu's obviously the smarter one. Until next time! Cyberchao X, signing off.


	3. Chapter 2

Keeper  
by Cyberchao X

Chapter 2 –Leaving Petalburg City (west)

"So, Max, have you caught any new Pokémon since obtaining Piplup?"

"Yeah. The route between New Bark Town and Oldale is so easy to capture on, I wonder why most trainers don't immediately try to fill their parties and worry about further differentiation later. I caught a Poochyena, a Lillipup, a Wurmple, a Surskit, and a Seedot.

"Wait, you've already got a full team of six? Maybe I should refill my team!"

"…You went back to just Pikachu upon changing regions again?" Max asked.

"No, of course not! I wanted to bring back some of my Hoenn partners, but I also left some room for new Pokémon…and I can't forget about some of the new Pokémon I caught in Kalos! Come on out everyone!" Four fully-evolved Pokémon appeared from Poké Balls—two from Hoenn, two from Kalos.

"Whoa, it's Sceptile and Swellow! And…you've got a Talonflame and a Greninja!"

"Yeah, Froakie was my first new Pokémon in Kalos, and then Fletchling was my first capture. …Froakie was also the first Water-type starter I've owned to evolve. Squirtle, Totodile, and Oshawott all stayed in their base forms."

"What about you, Serena?"

"I don't have very many Pokémon at all. Just three." She released her Pokémon from their Poké Balls.

"Oh, that's an evolution of Eevee, right? May caught one too; she evolved hers into a Glaceon."

"A Glaceon? …Yeah, that was something I considered. But it didn't seem to go well with either Pancham or Delphox. Also…Sylveon loves to dance, and her ribbons trailing behind her while she dances are so beautiful."

* * *

CCX: Eevee's dub debut aired shortly after the previous chapter was posted. At the moment, Bulbapedia says that it hasn't evolved yet even in the Japanese airing; I figure Sylveon is the most likely choice of evolution, and if it doesn't evolve at all by the end of the series, it still works because it could've evolved between then and the start of this fic. Of course, there's one other possibility that I can't ignore…the Kalos Mossy Stone is in the forest of Route 20, beyond Snowbelle City; it's a location that hasn't been visited yet, and that's probably the possibility that makes the most sense other than Sylveon to begin with. Flareon, Jolteon, and Vaporeon are unlikely because of how infrequently the protagonists use evolutionary stones (I initially thought it had never happened but then I remembered Ludicolo); we already have major characters with Umbreon (Gary) and Glaceon (May); and Espeon would create a type redundancy with the now fully-evolved Delphox (not that they worry too much about that, especially not with the coordinators/performers).

* * *

"Dance? Hmm…"

"So which way are we going, anyway?" Ash asked. "There are so many different paths to take through Hoenn to get to all the gyms."

"Rustboro's the closest. From there, I figure we'll set off for Dewford and come around to Slateport that way, and we'll get to skip the northwest portion of the region entirely."

"Ah. Yeah, that works. I figured we'd set off for Dewford before even reaching Rustboro, since we have to go further north than Mauville to get to Lavaridge anyway, and loop around through Fallarbor up north to get back to Rustboro."

"You'd have me challenge Roxanne _fourth_?"

"Your team at the moment isn't exactly suited to challenging her anyway, aside from Piplup. Seedot don't learn any Grass-type moves until they're almost ready to evolve, and you've got two Bug-types and a Normal-type."

"Normal-types are weak to Fighting, as are Dark-types. And Surskit is also a Water-type, so it can deal super-effective damage to Rock-types."

Their discussion was interrupted by a Pokémon's cry. "Oh, there's something else that might help against Roxanne!" It was a Wingull. Max sent out his Lillipup to battle it, and he captured it. "Hmm, who should I remove from my party for Wingull?"

"Dunno. Wurmple can evolve pretty quickly, but as is it's not adding much."

"I think you're right, though. Beautifly would be mostly redundant if I evolved Surskit. Dustox, maybe…"

"Why is it always such a big event whenever you get a new Pokémon, Ash?" Serena asked.

"I guess I just don't like to take Pokémon from their natural habitats. Aside from catching a bird in each region, I wait for Pokémon who want to come with me."

"Do you think maybe I should catch a new Pokémon?"

"I guess we could see what we find. The forest has some interesting species."

"The forest!"

"Yeah, the…wait, what was that?"

"Chat! The forest, the forest!"

(Yes, in case you hadn't realized it when I threw in Lillipup, we're working with post-Eon Flute ORAS lists for each route's Pokémon.)

"The forest! Chatot!"

"I…guess a lot of people talk about the forest," Max said. Serena looked it up in her Pokédex. _"Chatot. The Music Note Pokémon. It can learn and speak human words. If they gather, they all learn the same saying._ "

"Music? Sylveon, what do you think? Would you like to have a musical Pokémon to perform with?".

"Sylveon!"

"Okay then. Sylveon, use Swift!"

"Syl!" The Fairy-type attacked.

"CHAAA!"

"What the…was that _Boomburst_?" Ash covered his ears.

"Pikachuuuu…"

"Ugh…Sylveon, use Charm!"

"That won't do any good…" Max said. "Charm weakens physical moves; Boomburst is a special move."

"Now, Sylveon, use Fairy Wind!"

"Sylveon…"

"…Okay. Poké Ball, go!" The ball wobbled three times, then Chatot escaped. "Oh…"

"Just keep at it, Serena! It came pretty close; you might get it if you throw another one!"

"Chatot's actually a pretty tough Pokémon to capture," Max said.

"Okay… Go, Poké Ball!" This time it was caught. "I did it? I did it! I caught a Chatot!"

"That's great!"

* * *

Petalburg Woods

"Wow. All of a sudden it's gotten really dark," Ash remarked. "Kind of reminds me of the Eterna Forest in Sinnoh."

"Doesn't the Eterna Forest have a mansion that's rumored to be haunted?" Max asked.

"The very same."

"You think we'll meet some Ghost-types?"

"I have a suspicion. Could be good for you; Ghosts are immune to Fighting-types, so if you get one, it could really shine in Dewford."

Before any wild Pokémon could show up, however, they heard some yelling. "Wait, is that…?"

Max nodded. "Team Aqua and Team Magma have been active again recently."

"Who are Team Aqua and Team Magma?" Serena asked.

"They're criminals. Really bad ones, too; Team Rocket may steal Pokémon, but these guys actually want to reshape the world. Team Aqua wants to flood the world and increase the size of the oceans, while Team Magma wants to make the oceans smaller and increase the landmass."

"They're eco-terrorists?"

Ash looked at her.

"Yes, Serena, they're eco-terrorists," Max said.

"We've got to stop them!" Ash charged forward. "Give those—whatever it is you stole, give it back!"

"Cute," the Aqua grunt said. "You don't even know what you're fighting for, but you want to challenge me? Go, Mightyena!"

Pikachu made quick work of Mightyena. The Devon researcher retrieved his parts and thanked Ash.

* * *

"The Petalburg operation hit a snag. Send more units to intercept at Rustboro." The Aqua Grunt switched off her radio. "Hmm…Ash Ketchum. This could get interesting. Knowing his reputation…if I continue on this path I'm on, I'll run into him soon enough."

* * *

CCX: Like I said, this is based heavily on ORAS. Until next time, this is Cyberchao X, signing off. ...Wait I forgot to actually have Max catch a Phantump! Eh, catching scenes are boring anyway; just assume it happens between now and Chapter 3.


End file.
